


Inklings and Overflowings

by Lucyemers



Category: Turn (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28562433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucyemers/pseuds/Lucyemers
Summary: On the night Hewlett is kidnapped Anna thinks back over several moments and what they meant to her.
Relationships: Edmund Hewlett/Anna Strong
Comments: 7
Kudos: 8





	Inklings and Overflowings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShewasXena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShewasXena/gifts).



> Happy New Year ShewasXena!

Prologue: 

It is the middle of the night of the evening they took him. Mary has been kind and Anna’s fire has been stoked and tea has been brewed. Anna didn’t realize how loudly she’d called out his name until she felt the soreness in her throat. She is shocked by how deeply she feels his absence. She ought to be used to loss by now- the loss of her engagement, her husband- now the loss of her...what? Who is Edmund Hewlett to her? When did he become anything to her? She sips her tea, grimaces at the coldness and remembers…

1.  
The first time she had seen him had been in her tavern at Christmastime. She had just that week hung the greenery and mistletoe. That last she had begun to regret. Had she not waited on drunken men long enough to know that hanging it would only invite trouble? She was considering taking it down when she’d found herself under the offending plant with one of the most absurdly formal looking Redcoats she’d ever seen. She’d rolled her eyes when a lift of his head had betrayed that he’d realized the significance of where they were standing. But he had only blushed slightly and said, “Forgive me Mrs. Strong. I would never presume.” Later she had gone out of her way to forget to charge his pint of ale to his account. 

2.  
“The cause needs me here.” Was it the cause or was it Abe? She didn’t know. The water had been freezing and all the while she had been swimming she’d been torn between wanting to look back and meet Selah’s eye, and wanting to keep her eyes on Abraham as she might a light in a storm. It wasn’t until she’d been well wrapped in Abe’s coat that she’d noticed Major Hewlett. And she’d been nearly lost for breath all over again. She had never seen any man look at her with such admiration. Love and lust- she knew all about those looks well enough- but this kind of awe and admiration surprised her. She had shaken it off. It was only because he thought her a loyalist. 

3.  
Staying at Whitehall had afforded her the opportunity to go out for rides- a rare pleasure since she had lost her estate. But when her horse had been spooked by a fallen log she’d narrowly escaped being thrown. She’d been struggling to lead her horse back when Hewlett had ridden up beside her. He had dismounted and asked if she had been all right- instantly calming in the face of her frustration and distress. In the past she and Abe had made a passing joke here and there about the Major’s fondness for his horse. But now as she watched him calm the started animal, his voice low and gentle, his eyes steadfast and soothing, she realized that he had calmed her as well. Not only today but many times over the past few months. He’d entered her life unobtrusively and kindly when many other men had burst in without welcome or invitation. 

Epilogue:

The embers are burning low and Anna is still replaying these and many other moments in her mind. It was not so very long ago that she was sitting hip to hip with him at the piano, invigorated by his enthusiasm for a piece of music and by just how very close their hands were. She remembers his smile as he left her to retrieve another piece of music- so fond, so sincere, the picture of joy and contentment. And she breaks. The tears come quick and hot and she does not resist them. She didn’t realize that she’d been resisting her feelings as well- but now they are coming all at once, flowing just as freely as her tears. So many inklings of tenderness have given way to an overflowing of feeling for a man who had invited her to look at the stars.


End file.
